Less than two weeks out from the Victorian election, and Federal Greens Party Leader Bob Brown – highly regarded as being an honest and ethical politician – has decided to send out an email smear to Greens Party supporters in a cheap attempt to raise money. Bob Brown has long argued for a higher standard of politics in Australia.

Unsurprusingly, Greens Party supremo Bob Brown turns out to be just another politician.

Unfortunately, most of Bob Brown’s fundraising email are just anti-Labor smears.

Dear friend,

Well, they’re definitely nervous.

The voters of Melbourne made history once before in electing Adam Bandt, and are just about to make history again in the Victorian election. So this week, the Liberals and Labor joined forces to squeeze out the Greens.

I wonder what Bob Brown would say to Adam Bandt, who in Bob Brown’s illogical world, joined forces with the Liberals to “squeeze out” Cath Bowtell.

Let’s inject some facts into the noxious lies that Bob Brown is peddling on this.

The Greens political party were actually caught out negotiating with the Liberals over preferences. Labor has never negotiated with the Liberals over preferences. This was reported in the Greens Party’s in-house newspaper, The Age.

The Liberals are putting the Greens last in every seat in the Victorian state election. That means a vote for the Liberals is now a vote for Labor — and in at least two upper house regions of Victoria, a vote for Labor is a vote for climate sceptics and more guns.

Again, if Bob Brown thinks the worst thing in the world is receiving Liberal preferences, then he must really, really hate Greens Party boy-wonder Adam Bandt, who is only in Parliament now because of the preference decision of the Liberal Party.

What’s more, Labor’s original preference offer to the Greens Party was a straight preference swap – Labor offered to preference the Greens Party 2nd everywhere, in exchange for preferences from the Greens to Labor everywhere.

The only reason that this isn’t the case in two regional upper house electorates is because the Greens refused this deal in pursuit of a side-deal with the Liberals to secure inner-city preferences. The Greens Party leader Greg Barber (and Bob Brown via this smear-mail) now refuse to take responsibility for their decision to try to negotiate with the Liberal Party.

Labor is preferences the Greens Party before the coalition in every seat in Parliament. The Greens Party will in fact get Labor’s 2nd preference  in 79 out of 88 Legislative Assembly districts (in all the others, except Mildura, they are third) and 5 of 8 Legislative Council regions (in the remainder, they are third).

Our best chance now comes down to one area: the seats of inner city Melbourne. So right this very moment, we’re filming new footage to update our highly successful regional TV ad into a message for the voters of Melbourne.

This admission by Bob Brown shows that the Greens Party election strategy in Victoria was to coast to victory on the coat tails of Baillieu and the Liberals. Now that this quick and dirty route to Parliament was closed off by the Tories, they’ll actually have to campaign to get votes.

Will you make a donation of $20 or more right now to put this ad in front of thousands of Melbourne voters before Election Day?

I’m asking you and every other Green supporter across Australia to stand up to those who will do whatever it takes to lock us out of parliament.

Again, let’s wipe away some of this anti-Labor mud that Bob Brown is throwing.

Labor had offered the Greens Party a straight swap of preferences – this was rejected. As they wanted second preferences in all Council regions, Labor then asked in return for preferences ahead of the Coalition in the seats required to retain a Labor Government – this was rejected, as were numerous other proposals made in good faith. The Greens Party never offered more than 16 seats in which they would allocate preferences to Labor, and these offers were always subject to significant caveats – as well as, in our view, risking the election of a Tory Government.

We are targeting seats in Melbourne because we know they are winnable. But we have to redouble our efforts and our resources in Melbourne to succeed.

Our message to Melbourne is simple: your vote is powerful; and if you’re tired of politics as usual, if you believe in addressing climate change and moving to a sustainable economy, fixing public transport, ending marriage discrimination or upgrading Victoria’s flagging healthcare and education with genuine investment – the Greens are your real choice

This would be laughable if it wasn’t so dishonest. The Greens Party in Victoria have demonstrated that they are “politics as usual”.

• Brian Walters – Greens Party candidate for Melbourne – is on the record as saying supporting the Liberal Party to form Government in Victoria is on the table as far as he’s concerned.
• When asked by Jon Faine whether the closure of Hazelwood was a first tier issue if he was part of the balance of power, Greens Party leader in Victoria Greg Barber said that Hazelwood was not an issue. Nor in fact was any issue that Bob Brown mentions. Greg Barber was only interested in “transparency” in Parliament – that is, more parliamentary resources for Greg Barber through chairmanship of a committee or two.
• The Greens Party was trying to negotiate a side-deal with Ted Baillieu and the Liberals. Despite all of their so-called principles, the Greens Party decided that they would talk to the biggest party of climate skeptics.
• Greg Barber and Brian Walters did not rule out supporting the Liberal Party – whose shadow attorney Robert Clark said in Parliament “being homosexual is something individuals have to come to terms with, just as someone with spina bifida”.

Put your values into action. Donate $20 now and help put our new ad on the air from next week.

We need voters in Melbourne to know that the Greens are the true opposition – the only party offering any real alternative to the old parties.

It’s a bit rich for a party that only has MPs in the Upper House to call itself the “true opposition”. However, if the Greens Party want to be considered the “true opposition”, then they should expect more scrutiny, and more importantly, they should be willing to put up policies during an election that aren’t magic pudding fantasies.

Despite the best attempts by the major parties to sideline or eradicate us, the Greens will continue to flourish thanks to the support of people like you

Thank you,

Bob Brown

The Greens Party’s refusal to accept the consequences of their actions would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. Greg Barber may have an MBA but he clearly didn’t major in negotiating. His cynical plan to take Labor for a ride while playing with the Tories delivered as much to his constituents as his four years holding the balance of power in the Victorian Parliament. Precisely nothing.

If the Greens Party had adopted the same principled approach to preference dealings as Labor did, we all would have been able to get on with the task of fighting the homophobic, climate change denying Liberal Party. And the Greens Party candidates in Northern and Eastern Victoria would be receiving Labor second preferences. But maybe that’s not what Greg wanted.

But the real measure of a politician is how they respond in adversity. Greg Barber announced that his punishment for the Liberals decision to reject the Greens Party’s deals is to try to strike out at two progressive Labor women: Jacinta Allan and Tammy Lobato.

(Hat tip: Andrew.)